Flash Mob of 15-20 Black Teens Attack In Chicago, while another group attacks and steals on the CTA Red Line.

One man was smoking a cigar Saturday night on a bench in the Streeterville neighborhood when his evening was interrupted by a group of young men who robbed and beat him. Another man was parking his motor scooter outside Northwestern University’s downtown campus when the same group apparently made him their next victim, police said.

Police believe the group of about 15 to 20 youths in their mid- to late teens also was responsible for two more attacks moments later along the lakefront.

At least seven people thought to be part of the group were arrested Saturday in connection with the robberies and mob action, a crime that has become a problem in Streeterville, the Gold Coast and the Magnificent Mile, authorities said.

Dvonte Sykes, 17, of the 7500 block of South Normal Avenue was charged with two felony counts of robbery and one count of mob action violence to person and property.

Two 16-year-old boys also were charged in a juvenile delinquency petition for the same incident. One boy was charged with a felony count of robbery and one count of mob action violence to person and property, police said. The other boy was charged with one count of misdemeanor theft, control of stolen property of less than $300 and mob action. The youths were not named because they are juveniles.

Two other youths, Trovolus Pickett, 17 and Derodte Wright, 18, were charged in connection with a robbery on the 300 block of East Chicago Avenue, police said.

Pickett of the 8400 block of South Dorchester Avenue was charged with three felony counts of robbery, this includes the robbery committed on the North Lake Shore Drive. Wright of the 3500 block of South State Street was charged with one count of felony robbery for the incident on East Chicago Avenue, police said.

In mid-May, Chicago police started implementing strategies to address mob action incidents, which are often coordinated via text messages or social networking websites, in downtown and neighborhoods near it. <<>>

Surveillance Pictures Released In

Mob Attack On CTA Red Line

CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Police hope surveillance pictures help lead them to one of three weekend mob attacks on people downtown.

As WBBM Newsradio’s Bernie Tafoya reports, around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, a 23-year-old man was beaten up on the CTA Red Line near the State-Lake stop Saturday by a group of about six teenagers.

The teens had just stolen the man’s 27-year-old female friend’s iPhone 4S. She had dropped the phone, and a teen had picked it up and taken it for himself.

The man told the teen to give his wife her iPhone back. But they instead began punching him in the face.

The group then fled the train at State and Lake streets, near the Chicago Theatre.